manylittle

Fantasy marbles.

Those are great photos !!!! What do you use for a camera...lighting etc. I have a good Nikon with some macro filters but am still struggling in getting great photos like yours. Thanks, Vicki

Mike and Frank stopped in to my store in Wisconsin several times way before they got famous on TV. They are great people...even bought a sign from me. They picked a multiple story warehouse in Illinois where the widowed lady lived in an apartment in the warehouse. I had had a chance to go to that same location when I was contacted by one of the daughters years before the show aired. I did not go because it would have been at least a 6 hour one way drive. I recognized it immediately when I saw the episode on TV. The daughter's description of the place and her parents had been very detailed so it was easy to do. I have been kicking myself in the but that I did not go down there ever since !!! The lady had great stuff and was not stuck on insisting on too high prices. I don't think that the show is fake. I think that it is as real as they can make it considering that it is a TV show and that sometimes Daniel can't get enough good leads to generate the WOW quality that shows like this need....so sometimes the networks step in and help with that. I would say that some of the picks are totally authentic and some are scripted, but it is TV and you have to expect things like that. I am very happy for Mike and Frank and wish them well.

mib$ Great job of research!!! It gives us a window as to how this guy thinks.

He's got two or three more, and like this one and the one before mentioned, says absolutely nothing about them being polished. Integrety please?

both marbledawg's and zaboo's mibs are absolutely beautiful, each in their own way!!! I have sorted through a lot of marbles in the past 25 years, but have never held a blueberry aide in my hand!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-ONIONSKIN-MARBLE-17-32-End-of-Day-JOSEPHS-COAT-First-Off-Cane-8-COLORS-/360864196394?pt=Marbles&hash=item54052ea72a Another one....and take a look at the price.

Jeroen, I agree with you. I believe this lister knows his marbles better than most. It is obvious from the way he talks about marbles in his listings. It is only when he is trying to sell a non-descript marble and make it into something that it isn't that he starts word spamming. He does not have to do it with his good mibs and he is confident enough to know it.

There is nothing wrong with having polished marbles in your collection, if that is what you like. There is something wrong with knowing that it is polished and yet not identifying it as such when they list it for sale. That is fraud and the seller had better hope that no lawyer that lives anywhere near him, starts collecting marbles and buys one of his unlabeled polished marbles, because when he finds that he was duped, the shit will hit the fan. I am a firm believer in that what goes around comes around and if a guy consistently screws people, that eventually he will get caught at it by the right person and he will have to pay some consequences.

I'm convinced that there are some sellers who don't want things to improve on Ebay because they themselves benefit from the confusion. They can consistently mis-identify their marbles, using words in their titles that sound great but have nothing at all to do with the identity of the marble, and they can overprice their marbles. Ebay makes it so easy to relist, that it is easy to price a marble, hundreds and thousands of dollars more than it is worth, and just keep relisting it with lower prices until it sells. Eventually some newbie, with more money than caution will think he's getting a good deal at $200 because he saw the same marble listed at $900, and buy it while the seller laughs all the way to the bank because he just got $2oo for his $2 marble. It does not work all of the time, but it works enough of the time that it makes it profitable to do. And when his marbles are consistently well photographed and well presented, it works even better. About the problems of honest mis-identifications....If every one of us, went and corrected a mis identified marble when we saw it on ebay and directed the seller to sites like Marblealan and here, etc perhaps, if we all did it on a consistant basis, but only if we were absolutely sure of the identity and only if we did it in a very polite manner, indicating that the motivation was to teach and to better the hobby, we might start making a dent in the problems on ebay. Education is always the key to success. It would not work if it were just one or two of us, but if the majority of us were committed to it, it might just do a great deal of help.

What if it were someone that you knew was an expert in the field of buying and selling marbles and he or she did the same thing, Galen. Would ethics be involved then? Just wondering.

MC....I did not suggest a change in the forum structure...I simply asked peoples opinions on the concept. In fact, my beginning personal opinions on the question were not pro change but I thought that it was a question that might get some participation and boy....was I right...but not in a good way. lol I did not realize that it would be such a hot spot. My reference to being a newbie in this thread was tongue in cheek humor.

Hi Galen. What do you think about the ethics of pricing two 50 cent marbles for $100. Is it buyer beware or do we owe it to beginners to price our marbles with the present market in mind??. Your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

He or she, does not mention that the marble is polished in his description but having watched his auctions for quite some time, I would be extremely surprised if he did not know that it was polished and this was just a mistake but of course one must give the benefit of the doubt. ....maybe he meant to put it in the description but forgot. or... Maybe he subscribes to the 'buyer beware' theory and if they don't know better, then tough luck !!! I think we all owe it to beginning collectors to be totally and scrupulously honest in our discriptions...for example, if its polished, say so....if you can't decide who made the marble, don't list two or more makers in the title....different mib, same seller....etc...you get the drift. If you have extra room in the title, don't throw out other names of marbles, that the marble isn't, just to get a better google response....such as brick and slag in the title when by the colors it is definitely a purple slag....etc. But then, I'm just a 'newbie' here and unworthy of having an opinion...oh well. lol

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-MARBLE-19-32-Cloud-like-END-OF-DAY-CANE-Onionskin-6-COLORS-Rare-Combos-/360860655309?pt=Marbles&hash=item5404f89ecd

Are you saying that while marble prices in general have been declining, that that isn't the case for certain runs of Jabos? That they have gone against that trend and actually risen in price? I have mixed feelings about jabos. I think that they are beautiful and I don't think that they are trying to look like any of the older marbles which is a good thing. They seem to have their own characteristics etc. I do feel though, that they, like any other collectible have to stand the test of time and they are too new to have been able to do that yet. I don't think that we will know that until another 50 years or so have passed. I do know that there will be a lot more mint examples around, simply because no one plays with marbles any more. One of the reasons certain older marbles are worth so much is that there are so few of them available in mint condition. That aspect alone will have to have an effect, don't you think?

Ha Ha Hee Hee. !!!!!

Fantastic mibs, Galen. Good Job!!!!!

To each his own, I guess....I do agree with you about wanting refurbs marked permanently in some way, but don't know how it could be done in such a way that it could not be removed. Any ideas?

You probably don't need signitures, because of your vast knowledge, but there are many beginners out there who would benefit from it.....the signing of new marbles, I mean... Then, there are some unscrupulous marble makers who deliberately mimic the old marbles in style......anyone who makes a marble that looks like an old one should sign it...

Can you tell them apart from a regular unsigned contemporary made by anybody? Do you have pics so that those of us who have not seen one.....me?.....lol.....will know what to look for. I think that anyone making handmades today without signing them or marking them hurts the overall market. And of course, the makers of contemp machine mades, unless they can be easily told from older marbles hurts the market. I used to think that jabos did, but so many of those are so documented and easy to tell......what do you guys think?

What you are saying may have more to do with Jabos than with the more vintage marbles. As far as investor run marlbles....remember Beanie Babies ?...they were marketed to 'investors' also and look where they are now. What do the rest of you think?

Thank you Hillfrost, for that nice and positive comment.

Catfish, I understand why you say that the Internet has effected the decline in the price of marbles. I don't understand what you mean by Obama. Can you be specific?

I always thought that sparkler's were my favorite machine made marble, but I have a new one now!!! Burnt sparkler's rule !!!!